Winning the Nationwide race at Nashville Superspeedway on April 11 was huge. It'd been 10 months since I'd been to victory lane, and that's just too long. It was key to have the confidence to say, "You still can do this. You are here for a reason."

Toyota's financing unit is in talks with a Japanese government-backed bank on possible lending, the automaker said Tuesday, underlining the serious woes facing the car industry amid plunging global sales.

Toyota Motor on Thursday offered buyouts to some 18,000 U.S. workers and said it would cut pay for executives and blue-collar workers in its North American manufacturing operations in response to plunging auto sales.

In a faded pair of blue jeans and a brown hoodie with orange trim, Joey Logano, 18, could have passed for a Home Depot store associate rather than an aspiring Sprint Cup driver, and he hopes to remain just as unassuming when he becomes the youngest driver to start the Daytona 500 next Sunday.